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The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game
The Wheel Turns and New Legends are Born
As the Third Age unfolds, the tales of many heroes will be woven into the Great Pattern. While those stories have yet to be written, your part in them is unmistakable. Whether a Maiden of the Spear or a Hunter for the Horn, Aes Sedai or Asha'man, you are destined to join the struggle against Trollocs, Darkfriends, the Forsaken, and countless other evils revealed by the turning of the Wheel.
From the Aryth Ocean to the Aiel Waste, the entire Wheel of Time series is covered in this complete, self-contained d20 System roleplaying game approved by Robert Jordan. This single volume contains statistics for all the major characters, a unique system for channeling the One Power, feats, prestige classes, and everything else you'll need to make your visions become reality in Robert Jordan's world of epic fantasy.
Take your place in the legends that have yet to be told.
As the Third Age unfolds, the tales of many heroes will be woven into the Great Pattern. While those stories have yet to be written, your part in them is unmistakable. Whether a Maiden of the Spear or a Hunter for the Horn, Aes Sedai or Asha'man, you are destined to join the struggle against Trollocs, Darkfriends, the Forsaken, and countless other evils revealed by the turning of the Wheel.
From the Aryth Ocean to the Aiel Waste, the entire Wheel of Time series is covered in this complete, self-contained d20 System roleplaying game approved by Robert Jordan. This single volume contains statistics for all the major characters, a unique system for channeling the One Power, feats, prestige classes, and everything else you'll need to make your visions become reality in Robert Jordan's world of epic fantasy.
Take your place in the legends that have yet to be told.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2001
12 people are currently reading
3519 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Ryan
12 books32 followersAuthor of the well-reviewed novel The Mason of New Orleans, Charles M. Ryan also has more than 30 years' experience in the games industry. There he's created or contributed to nearly every class of tabletop game—board games, card games, trading card games, miniature games, and roleplaying games—and he’s garnered awards and recognition for game design, editing and development, graphic design, and fiction. As a businessman, he’s worked in every tier of the market, from running his own independent publishing firm, to serving as Hasbro’s global brand manager for Dungeons & Dragons, to heading up marketing at the UK’s Esdevium Games, one of the world’s largest game distributors. Charles served as Chairman of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design, the professional organization of the games industry, from 1997 through 2001. For the past decade, he's been the COO and a partner at Monte Cook Games, publisher of innovative and imaginative roleplaying games such as Numenera, Invisible Sun, No Thank You, Evil!, and the Cypher System.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 7, 2021
Reading this RPG was actually my first introduction to the Wheel of Time, and it did a good job of explaining the WoT universe to me and getting me interested enough to actually read the books that my friends had been talking about. Mechanically, it's pretty similar to DnD 3.5 Edition, except everyone gets better armor class (because death is 100% permanent in WoT) and with an interestingly modified magic system. If you're new to the series and want to get an overview before you dive in, this book is a great place to start.
January 25, 2023
This book is a bit of a mixed bag, to say the least. I think it largely suffers the problems of any one book licensed D20 game, except unlike WotC's Star Wars game, there were no supplements beyond a single adventure book, so there's nothing out there to shore up the weaknesses. When you need to stuff an abridged D&D Player's Handbook into the same book as a setting and DM guide, and have all that be the same length as the normal PHB, there are going to be problems. There's only seven classes, most of which are rather boring, and the Aiel warrior class has a ridiculous name even if it's right from the books. Skills, feats, and combat are what you'd expect, complete with 3.0 goofiness like Use Rope and a skill just for knowing which way is north. But since Wheel of Time is just humans, plus Ogier, there's not the usual spate of races in D&D or Star Wars and that chapter instead spends time developing a relatively neat backgrounds system.
The magic system is also a little more interesting, since of course the One Power doesn't work at all like D&D's pseudo-Vancian default. Well, in RPG form, there are still weaves per day, but there's a few mechanics by which Channelers can attempt to cast more powerful spells and/or more spells than they should be able to, though some of them risk stilling. And the way most weaves can be cast at different levels for varying effects is a nice precursor to fifth edition's system. I also like the organization of weaves into Talents and the rules about how common or rare different spells are. The chapter feels a little too thin and would've been nice to have expanded on had this ever gotten supplements. I did like the chapter on angreal and ter'angreal, even if it's short. It still manages to stuff in a lot of neat magic items, and the system for angreal, of allowing users to increase what each spell slot counts as, works nicely in this system.
The rest of the book is the usual GM advice, setting stuff, monsters, and an adventure. The GM advice suffers from being crammed into a relatively small chapter alongside the obligatory prestige classes, which are mostly better than the base classes. I liked the setting chapter, though it eats up a surprising amount of page count with not particularly useful full color versions of city maps taken from the books. The monsters are alright, but there's a weird mix of a handful of natural creatures, some obligatory things like Trollocs and Fades, and then weird Seanchan creatures, some of which I'm pretty sure are made up whole cloth. Finally, the adventure is trying, but it feels like it'd only work if the GM really railroads it. The text itself acknowledges at least one point where the whole thing ends prematurely, and there are too many points where the party could easily become split or simply fail to follow on to the next scene and waste everything.
Overall, this is an interesting little game, and it was probably one of the better sources for setting information back in the day. I get why D20 was used, but I'm not convinced that it's the best fit for Wheel of Time. While the character writeups are somewhat more reserved than the ones in Star Wars, there's still the issue that Rand being level 19 in book 6 of 14 is kinda a problem. And while the magic system here is neat, it feels like it doesn't capture the use of the One Power as much as I'd like. Now that the series is done and has an Amazon TV show, it'd be nice to see somebody else taking a crack at it.
The magic system is also a little more interesting, since of course the One Power doesn't work at all like D&D's pseudo-Vancian default. Well, in RPG form, there are still weaves per day, but there's a few mechanics by which Channelers can attempt to cast more powerful spells and/or more spells than they should be able to, though some of them risk stilling. And the way most weaves can be cast at different levels for varying effects is a nice precursor to fifth edition's system. I also like the organization of weaves into Talents and the rules about how common or rare different spells are. The chapter feels a little too thin and would've been nice to have expanded on had this ever gotten supplements. I did like the chapter on angreal and ter'angreal, even if it's short. It still manages to stuff in a lot of neat magic items, and the system for angreal, of allowing users to increase what each spell slot counts as, works nicely in this system.
The rest of the book is the usual GM advice, setting stuff, monsters, and an adventure. The GM advice suffers from being crammed into a relatively small chapter alongside the obligatory prestige classes, which are mostly better than the base classes. I liked the setting chapter, though it eats up a surprising amount of page count with not particularly useful full color versions of city maps taken from the books. The monsters are alright, but there's a weird mix of a handful of natural creatures, some obligatory things like Trollocs and Fades, and then weird Seanchan creatures, some of which I'm pretty sure are made up whole cloth. Finally, the adventure is trying, but it feels like it'd only work if the GM really railroads it. The text itself acknowledges at least one point where the whole thing ends prematurely, and there are too many points where the party could easily become split or simply fail to follow on to the next scene and waste everything.
Overall, this is an interesting little game, and it was probably one of the better sources for setting information back in the day. I get why D20 was used, but I'm not convinced that it's the best fit for Wheel of Time. While the character writeups are somewhat more reserved than the ones in Star Wars, there's still the issue that Rand being level 19 in book 6 of 14 is kinda a problem. And while the magic system here is neat, it feels like it doesn't capture the use of the One Power as much as I'd like. Now that the series is done and has an Amazon TV show, it'd be nice to see somebody else taking a crack at it.
March 5, 2009
Robert Jordan made a wonderful world with a detailed magic system. It is wonderful for those who love to role play and love Wheel of time.
January 21, 2013
As roleplaying games of brand-related material go, this is one of the best from during the d20 days. Its a solid resource of the Wheel of Time, as things stood after the first five novels. Roleplayers might find the magic system in the game a little unorthodox, but our group found it to have just the right flavor to match the books.
February 17, 2014
One of the bests d20 settings, it wonderfully manages to bring the whole WoT experience to the gaming table. The book is gorgeous and brings tons of possibilities to play.
February 14, 2022
A pretty fun conversion of the Wheel of Time into the framework of third edition D&D. It's worth looking at if only to see how quirks of Robert Jordan's long-running saga (like the gender-locked One Power) were translated into roleplaying game rules, as well as to read statblocks for characters like Rand, Matt and Perrin as they stood at around book 7 or 8 in the series. I doubt I'll ever play this, but stranger things have happened, especially now that the Wheel of Time is kicking off in mainstream consciousness thanks to the Amazon Prime show. Oh, and there's also an amusing intro written by Jordan himself where he talks about playing D&D with his kids back in the day and how he was an asshole of a Dungeon Master, hah.
November 29, 2020
I still have it on my bookshelf. See ya later, suckers!
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May 15, 2024A
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2020
Basic Premise: Roleplaying in the world of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
The trick with this game is the importance of magic to the world, and its unique way of implementation by the various practitioners. This game was published long before the series was finished, so there are a few elements from the series missing in this book. This system utilizes the open-source d20 materials for many of the rules, while creating a very non-traditional magic system. There's some very good background material in this book. I never got to actually play, but I thought the concepts were sound and the system seems to capture the spirit of the books.
The trick with this game is the importance of magic to the world, and its unique way of implementation by the various practitioners. This game was published long before the series was finished, so there are a few elements from the series missing in this book. This system utilizes the open-source d20 materials for many of the rules, while creating a very non-traditional magic system. There's some very good background material in this book. I never got to actually play, but I thought the concepts were sound and the system seems to capture the spirit of the books.
April 5, 2016
This is a rules-set that allows players to play 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons in the setting of Robert Jordan's epic 'Wheel of Time,' series. I plan on re-reading the first trilogy of the Jordan books sometime this year, and I bought this book cheap for more game material.
April 6, 2008
THE BEST RPG, using the D20 system, EVAR!!! stays so close to the books that you fell your almost there!
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June 8, 2012We tried roleplaying from it. There were a few good scenes, but it didn't work great for us.
August 3, 2014
Excellent campaign!
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June 27, 2014Glad ,,,
January 12, 2017
Este es de lejos uno de los mejores juegos de rol que existen, basado, por supuesto, en la excelente saga escrita por Robert Jordan.
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January 1, 2018Fits great with the rest of my WoT collection.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews